The wife insisted that we go and see Siena. It tuned out to be a really lovely place, but expensive! It's got lovely small streets which is great for getting lost in, and a dream come true for the architectural photographer. I'm certain you could spend a couple of months there and still have a lot left to photograph.

What was really interesting to see was the Piazza del Campo where the famous Palio horse race takes place twice a year. This is where 10 riders from the 17 districts compete in a 3 lap race around the square. Having seen the square in person I really can't imagine myself taking part in such a race. It must be brutal.

The tower in the above image is situated in the Piazza and it gave me a reason to put on the mZD 12 f2. This really is a fine lens, although it's not that cheap. I stopped it down here to f8 but I think f5.6 would have been enough.

During our stay in Tuscany we did a little detour to see the leaning tower of Pisa. It really is quite amazing because according to the engineers the tower should have fallen over time ago. It didn't, and it's now been stabalized so that it's going to stay as is for the foreseeable future.

Like many cities in Italy, Pisa is a pain to drive through and finding a parking spot a nightmare. The grounds are well visited, when we were there must have been thousands just walking the grounds. If you want to take some photographs here without people in the image then you can either forget it or come and take a look in the middle of the night.

The mZD 9-18 isn't a lens I use a lot but when I do need a really wide angle lens then I'm glad I brought the lens with me. This is one occasion where the lens had some good use. I experienced no problems on the OM-D and as you can see, it's quite sharp. It's cheaper then the Panasonic 7-14 and it can take filters unlike the latter lens. I've heard it said that the 7-14 is even better than the Olympus. I'd love to try it out but I'm not planning on buying that one any time soon. The 9-18 is good enough for me, and I'm not really the wide angle type anyway.